27 Facts About Ruth Neto

Maria Ruth da Silva Chela Neto was born on 1936 and is a former Angolan independence activist, political organizer, and women's rights campaigner.

Ruth Neto received Cuba's highest recognition of women, the, in 1985 and was honored as a grand companion in the Order of the Companions of O R Tambo of South Africa in 2014.

Ruth Neto's portrait was hung in the headquarters of the African Union in 2017 along with other women considered to be the founding mothers of the Pan-African Women's Organization.

Maria Ruth Neto was born in 1936 in Luanda in Portuguese Angola, as the younger sister of Agostinho Neto, who would become the first president of independent Angola.

Ruth Neto was first educated at the Mission School in Luanda, along with her cousin, Deolinda Rodrigues, niece of Maria da Silva, who had joined the Ruth Neto household in 1954 to further her education.

In 1956, Ruth Neto received a scholarship to study in Portugal at the.

In early 1968, Agostinho met her in Vienna, Austria, and in April Ruth Neto moved with his family to Dar es Salaam.

In 1971 in Tanzania, Ruth Neto met with members of the Chicago Committee for the Liberation of Angola, Mozambique and Guinea, hoping to strengthen ties between the OMA and international women's groups.

Agostinho was proclaimed president on that day, and Ruth Neto returned to Luanda.

Ruth Neto was the vice president on the WIDF Bureau from Angola.

Ruth Neto represented the MPLA, along with her sister-in-law Maria Eugenia Neto, in a visit to the Soviet Union the following year.

Ruth Neto attended the WIDF's Leadership Training for rural women in Manila in 1979.

Ruth Neto urged institutions to make more efforts to protect women's rights.

At the First Congress of the OMA, held between 2 and 8 March 1983, the organization was restructured and Ruth Neto was elected as the secretary general.

Ruth Neto led the Angolan delegation which attended the Tenth Congress of the Portuguese Communist Party in December 1983.

Ruth Neto protested the involvement of South African troops in the Angolan Civil War and reiterated that Cuban troops would not withdraw until South African aggression ended.

Ruth Neto traveled to London in 1984, to attend a protest rally denouncing South African intervention and US support for their actions.

Ruth Neto called for peace across the continent of Africa.

Ruth Neto was elected to succeed Fathia Bettahar of Algeria as the secretary general of the Pan-African Women's Organization in 1986.

At the June 1987 WIDF Moscow congress, Ruth Neto was one of the featured speakers and gave a presentation on the organization and committees that participated in planning the event.

Ruth Neto noted that only 59 of the 700 congressional delegates were women, only one woman served in the Political Bureau, and the Central Committee had only six women members.

Ruth Neto's comments were met by a "storm of applause" from the participants and a statement by Santos to encourage delegates to elect more women.

Ruth Neto stepped down as PAWO secretary general in 1997 and was succeeded by Assetou Koite of Senegal.

Ruth Neto was succeeded by Luzia Ingles Van-Dunem as secretary general of OMA in 1999, and until 2008, she served as the OMA's secretary of foreign relations.

In 2014, Neto was honored as a Grand Companion in the Order of the Companions of O R Tambo of South Africa for her contributions leading to the independence of Angola.

Ruth Neto is recognized one of the founding mothers of the Pan-African Women's Organization.

Ruth Neto was honored that year in a tribute sponsored the OMA, marking her twenty-one years' service as secretary general of the organization.